


Transformative

by NPennyworth



Series: Percabeth Week 2018 [1]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan
Genre: F/M, Miraculous Ladybug AU, Percabeth Week, Tags May Change, The Infamous Love Square, playing fast and loose with canon, superhero au
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-05-20
Updated: 2018-05-20
Packaged: 2019-05-09 06:52:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,697
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14711204
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NPennyworth/pseuds/NPennyworth
Summary: As the superhero Owl, Annabeth fights monsters with her partner Sea Horse, and is struggling with her feelings for him. Meanwhile Percy wishes he has the same confidence that his superhero persona Sea Horse has, but he can't even find the courage to approach his crush Annabeth.





	Transformative

**Author's Note:**

  * For [FanaticFangirl2602](https://archiveofourown.org/users/FanaticFangirl2602/gifts).



> This fic was written for the Superhero AU day of Percabeth week and dedicated to [fanaticfangirl2602](https://fanaticfangirl2602.tumblr.com), who is a horrible enabler and encouraged this AU from the beginning. Enjoy!

Running across rooftops was not as fun as it appeared, but Annabeth was enjoying herself regardless. The wind whipped her hair as she stood on the ledge, feeling a slight edge of dizziness drowned out by the sheer exhilaration of the moment.

“So who’s our monster?” a voice asked, and Annabeth didn’t need to turn around to know that Sea Horse was standing behind her.

“A Minotaur,” Annabeth said, turning and smiling at her partner. “You up for it?”

“Are you kidding? This will be a piece of cake,” Sea Horse said, making a show of stretching. His costume had greenish blue scales overlapping, and ornamental fins on his elbows and his mask. Annabeth personally thought his most arresting features were his eyes, big and beautiful and the exact shade of the ocean, but she would rather be buried alive in a coffin filled with spiders than admit that to him.

“Don’t get too cocky, Seaweed Brain,” she said, taking a step forward and letting herself fall off the roof. For a moment she enjoyed the feeling of wind rushing past her but then she snapped out her wings and let them catch her, billowing with air and slowing her fall to a glide. Her costume was shades of brown, with feather motifs and a mask that gave her a beak over her nose. Her favourite feature was the pair of wings connected to her shoulderblades and wrists, cloth that draped like a cape most of the time but could stiffen and turn into a parachute or glider depending on what she needed.

If her costume ever stuck around when she was transformed back she would definitely be analyzing the wings, as her kwami Tuto hadn’t explained how they worked beyond “it’s magic!” But for the meantime Annabeth focused on the figure of the Minotaur below. It was pacing back and forth down the street but Annabeth knew from experience that if it caught sight of anything moving it would take off in pursuit, which was why it was important that they subdued it quickly before an unlucky pedestrian got in the way.

“Stay out of sight,” she told Sea Horse through her watch screen, landing lightly on the roof of a car behind the Minotaur. “I’m going to try to trap it, and then you can come in for the kill.”

“Acknowledged,” Sea Horse replied, and Annabeth stood up and whistled. The Minotaur stiffened and slowly turned, it’s eyes red and bloodshot as it scanned the street. Annabeth waved her arms above her head and whistled again, and with a snort the Minotaur began to run towards her with it’s horns down. She leaped off the car and started to run, dodging around a fire hydrant that she heard the Minotaur stumble around.

With a flick of her wrist she pulled out her knife, keeping it hidden in her sleeve. She had three knives, and Tuto insisted that magic was what strengthened them and kept them eternally sharp instead of any sort of advanced alloy. She ducked into an alleyway and managed to leap up on a dumpster, using her momentum to leap off the wall and vault over the head of the charging Minotaur. It ran almost full tilt into the dumpster and she ended up on the other end of the alley, with the open street at her back and the angry Minotaur struggling to get out of the mess of plastic bags and trash from the now destroyed dumpster.

“Now, Sea Horse!” Annabeth called, narrowing her eyes at the wall and letting her miraculous illuminate it’s weak point. Tuto called it “Seeing Eye” but Annabeth regarded it as more of an increased perception, something that allowed her to focus on exactly what she needed to see. Sometimes it was an object, or a set of angles, or a vulnerable spot on whatever monster they were fighting. And right now, it was a structural weakness that sent enough of the wall tumbling down that the Minotaur was trapped in the alleyway.

Right on cue Sea Horse dropped down from the rooftop on the Minotaur’s back and flicked out a golden rod that transformed into a trident that buried itself into the monster’s neck. It staggered for a moment before falling to it’s knees, and Sea Horse pulled his trident out as the monster began to dissolve into dust. In a few seconds nothing was left of it but a bundle of ox hair lying on the ground, and Annabeth vaulted over the rubble and picked it up with some distaste.

“Hummingbird must be getting new supplies,” Annabeth said with a frown. “We haven’t seen a Minotaur in a while.” New York was plagued by a series of monsters created by a supervillain with an hummingbird miraculous, who could apparently turn objects into mythological creatures. They’d fought harpies that had turned into feathers, hydras made from snake fangs, and gorgons made from snakeskin, but no matter how many monsters they fought Hummingbird always managed to throw more at them.

“Shall I do the honors?” Sea Horse asked, holding out his palm. Annabeth dropped the ox hairs in it and he closed his palm around them, flipping his trident into it’s golden rod form again. One end of the rod began to glow and he tapped it onto the ox hairs, golden light cascading from the rod to surround the hairs until they crumbled into ash. The light then scurried across their surroundings, repairing the wall and dumpster before fading into nothing. Annabeth would be lying if she said that she wasn’t a little bit jealous that Sea Horse was the only one who could undo the damage caused by the monsters, but she shoved that feeling away knowing that it was unfair.  _ It’s not like we choose our miraculous, and I’m happy with Tuto.  _ She wouldn’t change her kwami for any fancy power in the world.

“See you tomorrow, Owl?” Sea Horse asked, and Annabeth smiled at him.

“Whenever evil calls, partner,” she said, and he gave her a nod and headed down the street. Annabeth waved goodbye and tried to ignore the way her heart stuttered as he faded in the distance.

Being a superhero wasn’t an easy gig, and as much as she loved the freedom of it Annabeth knew that without a partner she would probably be dead by now. So it wasn’t an exaggeration to say that she felt she owed Sea Horse her life, or that she trusted him and relied on his support. And she was fairly certain that he could say the same about her.

But the problem was that she, like an idiot, had gone and fallen in love with him sometime when she wasn’t paying attention. Because now she found herself thinking of his grin and laugh, or the way his eyes sparkled, or his easy gait as he leaped across rooftops. She had no idea who he was without the mask, and he only knew her as the Owl. And she was fairly certain that he would never return her feelings. How could he? What sort of idiot fell in love with somebody when their only interactions were fighting monsters?

_ Yeah,  _ she thought miserably as she transformed back, her costume receding into her owl miraculous hung around her neck. Without the costume she was just Annabeth Chase, the daughter of one of the richest men in the city and somebody who was hardly allowed to cross the street without a security sweep. Somebody who had curfew and nannies raise her since she was little and who had tried to run away to find her birth mother countless times, but especially after her father had remarried. Somebody who was a problem child, a spoiled brat, and a sheltered rich kid all wrapped in one.

She knew that she and Sea Horse weren’t ever supposed to know each other’s secret identities and that was fine by her, as she doubted he would be anything but intimidated by her real identity. She might lose his friendship, and some days she felt like he was the only real friend she had.

_ You don’t even know him,  _ she reminded herself, starting down the street for her home. She considered Owl to be her true identity, her unrestricted self. Being plain Annabeth Chase was like playing a role and doing it badly. For Sea Horse it could be the reverse: acting like a hero while being a bully out of costume. She doubted that was true but didn’t really have any evidence to point to the contrary, as she didn’t have the slightest clue who Sea Horse was when he wasn’t defeating monsters at her side.  _ And that’s the way it’ll stay, so stop moping about him and start planning on how you’re going to get back in your room without waking anybody. _

* * *

“Dude, wake up,” Grover hissed, elbowing Percy hard enough that he almost slid out of his chair. Percy sat up and tried to blink the sleep away from his eyes, hoping that he didn’t miss anything important. “You alright?”

“Fine,” Percy said. “Just tired.” Which was true enough. He and Owl had been out late last night, and when he’d woken up this morning he’d found that the Minotaur had managed to bruise him in the brief time that he was on his back. All day he’d been practically asleep on his feet, and if Grover didn’t have the same classes that he did Percy was certain that he would have done a faceplant into his schoolbooks and started snoring by now.  _ And probably been suspended, again. _

“I know what’ll wake you up,” Grover whispered to him. “We have History next.” History was Percy’s favourite class for two reasons. One, the teacher was Mr. Brunner, who was the only teacher in the entire school who didn’t speak in a monotone and hadn’t sent Percy to detention sometime this year. And secondly, during History he sat right behind-

“Annabeth Chase,” the teacher said, making Percy sit up a little straighter. Grover gave a little snort next to him which he hastily smothered as Percy glared at him, and then they turned their attention to the front where Annabeth was standing in the door. She handed the teacher a note and waited as she read it, and she gave Annabeth a nod and whispered something to her before turning back to the class. Annabeth turned and left, and Percy couldn’t help but appreciate the ponytail flip she gave as she spun around.

Actually, that was the problem. Percy couldn’t help but appreciate  _ everything  _ Annabeth did, from the way she walked down the halls (shoulders back, confident, like she owned the place) to the way she sharpened her pencils (perfectly sharp tips, three at a time, and then she’d wait until they all were dull before sharpening them again). Annabeth had started attending their school three months ago and from the moment he’d first seen her he’d had a giant crush on her.

Of course, she probably didn’t even know Percy existed, unless if she remembered him from their first meeting when Percy had tried to say hello to her in the cafeteria, tripped over a backpack, and sent the contents of his lunchtray flying into Clarisse, who was not known for being the most understanding individual. Within seconds a full blown food fight had erupted and three separate teachers had made a point of writing Percy detention slips for that incident.  _ A stellar first impression,  _ he thought with a grimace.

The bell finally rang and Percy swept his books in his bag, not caring in the least that he hadn’t absorbed the tiniest bit of math from this class.  _ It’s not like my grades are going to improve much, anyways.  _ Another one of Annabeth’s admirable qualities was her intelligence, something he knew from the teachers complimenting her work in class. Percy was a solid C- student, which he thought was pretty good given his dual gifts of dyslexia and ADHD, but unfortunately for him most people didn’t see it that way.

Of course, from the whispers he’d heard Annabeth also had some degree of ADHD and struggled with dyslexia, but she still managed to be earning straight As. The only talent Percy had was earning himself detention and getting kicked out of schools.

“You’re really out of it today, aren’t you?” Grover asked, snapping him out of his musing.

“Sorry. A lot on my mind,” Percy said, and Grover raised one eyebrow but didn’t press him. Grover was probably the most chill guy Percy had ever met, and he was fairly certain he’d be expelled six times over if it weren’t for Grover holding him back.

“I was asking if you were going to try out for the swim team,” Grover said.

“Nah, not really my thing,” Percy said. He had no doubt that he’d make it, as his activities as Sea Horse kept him in decent shape, but he didn’t really want to need to worry about balancing swim meets with fighting chimeras.  _ Not to mention who knows what sort of watery horrors I’d end up facing.  _ If he didn’t know better he’d say that the monsters were targeting him even when he was out of costume.

“I thought your mom said that you were trying out for the team,” Grover said, dodging around some of their larger classmates. Percy shrugged.

“She tries to get me to do a lot of these things,” he said. His mother was a saint but she was also a little too invested in the idea that Percy needed some extracurriculars to make some more friends. Percy couldn’t exactly explain that instead of yearbook committee he was decapitating cyclopses in his spare time, and that he was already friends with the most prominent superhero in the city.  _ Then again, Owl isn’t exactly the hang out and play video games type of friend.  _ But that was what Grover was for.

“What if I said Annabeth was on the swim team?” Grover asked, and Percy’s mind immediately conjured an image of her in a swimsuit.

“Really?” he said, and Grover shook his head.

“Nah, are you kidding? She’s more the chess team type.”

“I’ve always thought she’d do well on the debate team,” Percy said, thinking of the way Annabeth’s eyes would flash whenever she got in an argument.

“Well I guess we’re both wrong then, because Miss Rich Girl doesn’t do anything social,” Grover said, and the sound of a clearing throat behind them made both of them freeze.

“Maybe it’s because I don’t want to spend any more time around you mouthbreathers than necessary,” Annabeth said from behind them, and Percy would swear that his stomach dropped through two floors to the boiler room.

He and Grover both turned to see Annabeth levelling a deadly glare at both of them, and Percy was fairly certain that if looks could kill he would be in the afterlife seven times over at this point.

“No, I didn’t-” Percy started to say, at the same time Grover stuttered out “I’m so-”

“Save it,” Annabeth said, and with another withering look she pushed past them and headed for the classroom, her heels clicking on the floor as her ponytail swayed behind her.

The hallway was dead silent, and Percy was just beginning to wonder if he was going to wake up from this nightmare when somebody started to snicker. He didn’t even need to look to know that it was Clarisse.

“Shut it,” he said with a glare at her, which only made her laugh harder. Clarisse was the captain of the girl’s football team, and Percy wasn’t certain if it helped her release her natural aggression or only made her better at tackling people. She was basically the precise incarnation of the stereotypical jock who delighted in smashing students into lockers.

“I’m so sorry, man,” Grover said, and Percy glared at him before turning and heading for class, ignoring Clarisse and her small posse of bullies.

“Well, if my chances with her were at zero they’ve now descended into the negative digits,” Percy muttered, sliding into his seat and ignoring Grover sheepishly sitting down next to him. Annabeth was sitting in front of them and pointedly ignoring them, her back ruler straight as she kept her attention to the front of the class.

“Good afternoon class,” Mr. Brunner said, wheeling himself to the front of the room. “As I’m sure most of you are aware, the semester is drawing to a close and we always end our semesters with a project.” The entire class groaned, and Mr. Brunner simply picked up a stack of papers sitting on his desk.

“For this project you will be working in partners, and you will be researching an ancient civilization. I will assign both the partners and civilization, as we don’t need twenty presentations on the Aztecs.” He cleared his throat and began to read off the list of names.

“Grover Underwood,” he said, and Grover straightened only to slump when the next name was “Luke Castellan.”

“What?” Percy mouthed at him, confused. Luke was smart, as well as being one of the more popular kids at school thanks to him having the lead in the school play and being captain of the soccer team. He suspected Annabeth had a crush on him but tried to not think about that too hard.

Grover nodded his head towards Juniper, the girl sitting in the back row who appeared to be doodling in her notebook instead of paying attention. Grover had a crush on Juniper from the day when she’d rescued a group of baby bunnies some students had found in a nest by the school. Percy supposed that she was nice enough, but she always seemed a little too giggly and dreamy for his liking.

“You wouldn’t get any work done together,” Percy whispered at him. Unlike him Grover had actually made a point of approaching and striking up a friendship with his crush, and he and Juniper were sometimes exasperatingly similar in their taste in horrible indie music, stance on vegetarianism, and inability to approach each other on anything but a platonic level.

“You will be researching the Chinese dynasties,” Mr. Brunner said, and although Grover was still pouting over Juniper Percy could see Luke in the front row already scribbling down notes.

“Percy Jackson,” Mr. Brunner read, and Percy sat up with a jolt.  _ Please not Clarisse,  _ he thought, crossing his fingers.  _ Anybody but Clarisse. _

“Annabeth Chase,” he read, and Percy’s first thought was one of jubilation before he remembered that if Annabeth didn’t know him before she certainly did now, as the jerk who’d been making fun of her not twenty minutes ago.  _ Crud. Clarisse would have been better. _

“You two will be researching ancient Greece.” Annabeth nodded and opened her notebook, and Percy remained frozen in his seat throughout the rest of the assignments. When they split up Grover mouthed an apologetic  _ sorry  _ to Percy before going to sit next to Luke, leaving Percy alone with Annabeth. Who was making an expression that was technically a smile but in no way could be mistaken for something friendly.

“I guess we’re partners,” Percy said thoughtlessly, and then nearly smacked himself for it. If it was at all possible for Annabeth’s smile to grow tighter it did.

“If you can stand being partnered with ‘Miss Rich Girl’,” she said, and Percy winced.

“Look, I’m sorry about that,” he said. “He didn’t really mean that, he just-”

“Don’t,” Annabeth said, pulling out her laptop. “We’re only going to interact enough for me to maintain my grade point average, and then we’re both going to be happy never speaking to each other again.”

“Okay,” Percy said because he couldn’t really think of anything else to say, all the while thinking that not speaking to Annabeth ever again would make him the exact opposite of happy.

“So, Greece?” he said, leaning over Annabeth’s shoulder and trying to look at what she was doing. She shifted the screen away from him and he pretended to not notice, reaching in his backpack for his notebook.

“Yes,” she said, beginning to type something. “Capital city of Athens, invented the water mill and came up with the basics of geometry, and had some of the greatest philosophers and scientists, including Plato and Socrates.”

“You know a lot about it,” Percy said, surprised and a little impressed. Annabeth brushed a loose strand of hair behind her ear and looked down.

“They had great architects,” she said. “I like learning about this sort of thing.”

“Well, I know about the Olympians,” Percy offered. “Zeus, Hera, Aphrodite, that sort of thing.”

“Really?” Annabeth said, and Percy nodded.

“My mom would tell me stories about them when I was little. They always seemed pretty cool.”

“Yeah,” Annabeth said with a small smile. “Well, maybe you could-” She was interrupted by the sound of shattering glass coming from the back of the classroom, and a scream. They both jumped and turned to see what looked like a giant scorpion crawling through a shattered window.

“Everybody out,” Mr. Brunner ordered, and Percy wasted no time in vaulting over his desk and heading down the hall, making a point of getting separated from the rest of the fleeing students.

“We need to go,” he whispered, pulling open his jacket and poking the pocket where Ippo, his kwami, was snoozing. Ippo yawned and stretched, swimming through the air to hover in front of Percy.

“We shouldn’t stay up that late ever again, no matter  _ how  _ many Minotaurs are running around the city,” he complained, and Percy rolled his eyes before holding out his miraculous, which to the uneducated observer looked like a simple bracelet with a wave charm on it.

“Ippo, gills up!” he ordered, feeling the transformation sweep over him as his costume appeared. Being Sea Horse was the one thing he was really good at, and despite the deadly danger of the situation he couldn’t help but love his job.

_ And for this class project, there’s no way I’m letting down my partner. _

**Author's Note:**

> I've got stuff planned, but if you ask me nicely on [my tumblr](https://theshadowedqueen82.tumblr.com) I'll probably spoil anything.  
> Some notes:  
> Ippo is from the Greek word for seahorse, ιππόκαμπος (ippokampus). The seahorse is an animal associated with Poseidon, as the owl is (obviously) associated with Athena. Tuto is what one website told me was Greek for owl, but as I could find nothing else to back this up I didn't use it for Annabeth's name and just used it for the kwami. A hummingbird is an animal associated with moving backwards and forwards in time as well as the afterlife, so I thought it would be a good creature to have the power of bringing ancient monsters to life.  
> Please don't expect any sort of regular updates for this, irl is very busy and I'm also fighting a constant battle with carpal tunnel, but rest assured there will be more!


End file.
